Call for Papers

Society for Historical Archaeology Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

January 6-11, 2009

Places of Meaning, Meaning in Place: Tangibility, Controversy, and Conscience at Historic Sites

Organizers: Kevin M. Bartoy (The Hermitage) and Jay Stottman (Kentucky Archaeological Survey)

Session Sponsored by the Public Education and Interpretation Committee (PEIC) of SHA

Every piece of ground is a historic site. The events of the human past have traversed every inch of soil on this planet. Yet, it is in the present that we invest these sites with sufficient significance to make them places of meaning. These places provide tangibility for the intangible. It is through this process of making meaning in place that historic sites become contested landscapes. That is, places in which a past is interpreted and reinterpreted from a variety of perspectives in the present. In this process, they become places of controversy and conscience. This session seeks to explore our role as “interlocutors” in dialogues between events of the past and meaning making in the present. As such, we critically engage with a variety of publics in “locating” the past in place physically and in place with social issues of the present.

We are looking for papers from a broad spectrum of practitioners of public archaeology, public history, museum studies, and heritage studies. We hope that the session will be international in scope and diverse in contributions. While we do not want to limit creativity, some potential papers may address the following:

·         Engaging sites and subjects of controversy 

·         Interpretation and presentation of histories and archaeologies of controversial topics

·         The productions of contested landscapes and heritage

·         The relationship between landscapes, heritage, and identity

·         Making histories and archaeologies relevant to present issues of heritage and identity

·         The role of archaeologists or archaeology in the production of meanings, identity, or controversies 

We also hope that there may be a potential to have remote participation for those who cannot physically attend the conference. So, feel free to submit even if you are constrained in your ability to travel to Toronto for the session.

Proposals are due by June 10, 2008.

If you are interested in participating in this session, please contact Kevin M. Bartoy, Director of Archaeology, The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee, USA ([log in to unmask])